Not So Far: The Fight On Global Warming

You can think of global warming kind of like popping a bag of popcorn in the microwave. Anthropogenic warming has been stoked by increasing amounts of pollution since the start of the industrial age which is dated back to 1760 according to www.Pri.org. But that first hundred years or so was kind of like the first minute for that popcorn, you don’t really notice the change.

When you get to that second minute of popping your bag of popcorn, you start to notice that the kernels are popping. You can look at those individual pops as weather events. All those superstorms, extreme downpours, high-tide flooding, droughts, melting glaciers, ferocious wildfires, reactions against the change in temperature, almost acting as signals.

Inez Fung, an atmospheric scientist at UC Berkeley says that “we are in that second minute”. It’s a proven fact that across the United States, the average temperature has risen almost two degrees Fahrenheit since the start of the 20th century.

Think back to your fifth-grade science class when you first learned about photosynthesis, basic anatomy and the way our bodies work when we take a breath and pull air into our lungs that contains mostly nitrogen and oxygen, how when we exhale, we breathe out mostly carbon dioxide.

Scientists today have proven that we have released enough carbon dioxide in the air to continue warming the climate for several centuries to come. At this point in time, just like popcorn, even if you were to press the stop button on the microwave some of those kernels would keep popping for a while.

Though it is scary to think that humans will soon reach the point of no return and watch the Earth crumble before their eyes, plenty of countries like Canada, Germany, and the Philippines have realized this and have tried to make a difference to live and have more generations live on after them.

According to “The Climate Reality Project” Canada’s average temperatures have already increased by 1.7 degrees Celsius since 1948. Canada has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by phasing out hydrofluorocarbons used in refrigerators and air conditioning systems, they have also been supporting Indigenous communities and governments as they improve the energy efficiency of their homes and buildings, and much more.

Norah Shannon from Dobie Jr High school hasn’t been affected personally by climate change but says that she is scared that one day it will be too late, “I don’t think it’s a good thing, there’s a lot of things that are affecting the earth like pollution,” she says concerningly. She doesn’t quite know how to help the issue with climate change but knows that it is a real issue that needs to be dealt with.

Gracey Seamster, another 8th grader at Dobie, feels sad about climate change because she fears that “this beautiful earth will be gone in a while.” “I’m scared we’re all gonna die,” she says emphatically. She has personally tried to help this issue by being mindful of littering and trying not to use products that damage the earth or give money to the people damaging the earth.

Everyone is human and is careless at one time or another but, Gracie says she does, however, feel bad about the times she littered in her past.

Mrs. Cheyrl Henniger, one of Dobie’s 8th grade Science teachers feels that climate change, “Is a really big problem, and people should start helping to preserve the earth.” The Earth is breaking down and being stripped of its most precious natural aspects like oil. What people don’t notice about the way their car gets them to each shift or the gas that cooks the food they eat, is the cost of getting those features. Mrs. Henniger knows this and tries to be careful and like many other adults, tries to save as much energy in their home as possible.

It is said by http://www.theclimatechat.org that today 89% of humans contribute to the problem of global warming but some, as you can assume, don’t even notice. It’s not entirely their fault because many of these people don’t know how to stop or even how they can help clean the earth. Something you can do to help is simply by walking to work (or school) some days, reusing paper towels, or recycling. There are plenty of more things you can do to help the earth but these are to name a few.

Lastly, scientist Bill Collin, who directs the climate and ecological science at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab says that we have about 25 years left to reverse course.”Our steam engines, our factories, our cars … they’ve taken us back five million years,” Collin says. Plastic can take up to 1,000 years to decompose and if the first plastic based on a synthetic polymer was made in 1907, 112 years ago, that means all the plastic ever made is still on earth. This raises many questions. How are we all going to come together and eliminate this problem? How can we help? What’s going to happen when our bag of popcorn is done popping, what if it starts to burn?